Building a Community
Fig. 18. Photo by C.B. Daniels. Group Photo of Avalon employees. C.B. Daniels is in the front triggering the camera's shutter with a string.
Despite long hours and the questionable ethics of the working situation, life went on for the villagers. For many Avalon was home, where family and friends co-existed sharing the joys and enduring the hardships of the experience. Although the company owned the housing, many took pride in landscaping their yards. Some put up fences and planted shrubs, roses, weigela, and morning glories1. Most of the families had garden plots. Cabbage was a popular crop and was made into sauerkraut2. Mary Belle Carter, who ran the hotel, had a "kraut cutter" which made its rounds throughout the village2. Some of the families raised pigs and chickens, while a few of the more affluent families had their own cows1. The village of Avalon never became an official town. Nonetheless, the village was overflowing with small-town spirit and ingenuity which arose from people working together toward common causes.
- 1. Foushee, Ola Maie, Avalon: A North Carolina Town of Joy and Tragedy (Chapel Hill, NC: Books, 1977), 28.
- 2. Ibid., xiv.
- Fig 18 - Daniels, C. B., Avalon Mill Group (1900-1911), Location, Avalon, NC, Image [from Avalon: A North Carolina Town of Joy and Tragedy (Chapel Hill, NC: Books, 1977), 18].